King(fish) of the competition
Friday 19th March 6pm saw 128 competitors head out into the harbour for the annual Ōmokoroa Boat Club adults' fishing competition. Three weeks earlier the children had shown what they could do, so the pressure was on the adults to prove that with age comes fishing wisdom. However, one boat was in such a hurry to reach a favoured fishing spot that it managed to beach itself on the side of a channel and then needed an hour of incoming tide to free itself.
Most people seemed to head for the upper reaches of the harbour and radio silence was maintained by many, so little information emerged on what was being caught. Saturday morning saw the smaller craft return to the water in light winds and a spectacular sun rise. Some of those blessed with larger craft spent the night on the water, with a few, not to be named (Phil), sleeping in whilst their better half caught the early morning snapper. The best fishing seemed to be about an hour after low tide but Club Captain Chris Moon (having spent the night in Auckland at the Crowded House concert) only got on the water at 1.30pm and still managed to catch a decent snapper before the 4pm cut off time.
Weigh-in saw probably the largest number of fish we have seen in recent years. Nicely conditioned snapper and kahawai were plentiful, and a good number of sizeable trevally too. The fish of the day though and the biggest to be landed, possibly ever, in the history of the competition was Neil Alton’s kingfish weighing in at a stunning 19.24kg. It should be noted that despite using modern fishing gear, with modern drags, Neil still tried using his thumb to stop the fish on its first searing run, resulting in a nice friction burn.
A huge thank you to all our sponsors, but especially to our lead sponsor Tall Poppy and Rachel Millard. Given the amazing generosity of the local businesses this year, prize giving lasted a little longer than usual with some fantastic spot prizes being awarded as well as the main category prizes. The auction of a free crown from Ōmokoroa Dental raised $1100 for St John Ambulance, which was a great result. Finally, thank you to the committee members involved, and to Fee our club manager for organizing this great community event.
Tight lines!